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{{Short description|American judge (1907–1969)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Frank Burton Ellis
|name = Frank Burton Ellis
|office = Judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]]
|image = Frank Burton Ellis, U.S. District Court Judge.jpg
|office = [[Senior status|Senior Judge]] of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]]
⚫
|appointer = [[John F. Kennedy]]
|term_start = April 12, 1962
|term_start = November 16, 1965
|term_end = November 16, 1965
|term_end = November 3, 1969
|office1 = Judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]]
⚫
|predecessor = [[J. Skelly Wright]]
|successor = [[Frederick Jacob Reagan Heebe]]
|appointer1 = [[John F. Kennedy]]
⚫
|term_start1 = April 12, 1962
⚫
|office1 = Director of the [[Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization|Office of Emergency Planning]]
|president1 = [[John F. Kennedy]]
|term_end1 = November 16, 1965
⚫
|predecessor1 = [[J. Skelly Wright]]
⚫
|term_start1 = September 22, 1961
⚫
|successor1 = [[Frederick Jacob Reagan Heebe]]
|term_end1 = February 2, 1962
⚫
|office2 = Director of the [[Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization|Office of Emergency Planning]]
|predecessor1 = Position established
⚫
|successor1 = [[Edward McDermott]]
|office2 = Director of the [[Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization]]
|president2 = [[John F. Kennedy]]
|president2 = [[John F. Kennedy]]
|term_start2 = March 9, 1961
|term_start2 = September 22, 1961
|term_end2 = September 22, 1961
|term_end2 = February 2, 1962
|predecessor2 = [[Lewis Berry]] {{small|(Acting)}}
|predecessor2 = Position established
|successor2 = Position abolished
|successor2 = [[Edward A. McDermott|Edward McDermott]]
|office3 = [[President of the Louisiana State Senate|President pro tempore of the Louisiana Senate]]
|office3 = Director of the [[Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization]]
⚫
|president3 = [[John F. Kennedy]]
⚫
|term_start3 = 1940
|term_end3 = 1944
|term_start3 = March 9, 1961
|term_end3 = September 22, 1961
|predecessor3 = [[Coleman Lindsey]]
|predecessor3 = [[Lewis Berry]] {{small|(Acting)}}
|successor3 = [[Grove Stafford]]
|successor3 = Position abolished
⚫
|state_senate4 = Louisiana
|district4 = [[St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana|St. Tammany Parish]]
|office4 = [[President of the Louisiana State Senate|President pro tempore of the Louisiana Senate]]
|term_start4 = 1940
|term_start4 = 1940
|term_end4 = 1944
|term_end4 = 1944
|predecessor4 = Esco Knight
|predecessor4 = [[Coleman Lindsey]]
|successor4 = H. H. Richardson
|successor4 = [[Grove Stafford]]
⚫
|state_senate5 = Louisiana
|district5 = [[St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana|St. Tammany Parish]]
⚫
|term_start5 = 1940
|term_end5 = 1944
|predecessor5 = Esco Knight
|successor5 = H. H. Richardson
|birth_name = Frank Burton Ellis
|birth_name = Frank Burton Ellis
|birth_date = {{birth date|1907|2|10}}
|birth_date = {{birth date|1907|2|10}}
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|education = [[Gulf Coast Military Academy]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Science|BS]])}}<br>[[Louisiana State University|Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])}}
|education = [[Gulf Coast Military Academy]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Science|BS]])}}<br>[[Louisiana State University|Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])}}
}}
}}
'''Frank Burton Ellis''' (February 10, 1907 &ndash; November 5, 1969) was a [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], [[attorney at law (United States)|attorney]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] [[politician]] who served in the [[Louisiana State Legislature|Louisiana State Senate]], as director of the Office of Civil Defense and Mobilization in the administration of [[U.S. President]] [[John F. Kennedy]], and as a judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]] in the latter part of his career. As civil defense director, he pushed strongly for the establishment of [[fallout shelter]]s, then deemed essential to civilian protection during the [[Cold War]].<ref name=fedleaders>{{cite web|url=http://www.atomictheater.com/thefederalleaders.htm|title=The Federal Leaders|publisher=atomictheater.com|accessdate=September 7, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.conelrad.com/atomicsecrets/secrets.php?secrets=e15|title=The Eisenhower Ten|publisher=conelrad.com|accessdate=September 7, 2010}}</ref> On the bench, he slowed down the pace of desegregation in [[Orleans Parish, Louisiana|Orleans Parish]] schools and sided with [[Tulane University]] administrators in a key case against that institution.<ref name=ellisbio>{{cite web|url=http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/judgefrankellis_08a.htm|title=Judge Frank Burton Ellis: A Brief Biography and Selected Genealogy|publisher=tulanelink.com|accessdate=September 6, 2010}}</ref>


'''Frank Burton Ellis''' (February 10, 1907 – November 3, 1969) was a [[United States federal judge|United States district judge]] of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]].
==Early years==
Ellis was born in [[Covington, Louisiana|Covington]], the seat of [[St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana|St. Tammany Parish]] in suburban New Orleans, to Harvey E. Ellis (born 1875), a lawyer and the founder of the St. Tammany Banking Company, and the former Margaret Burton Whiteside (born 1884), a niece of [[U.S. Senator]] [[Hoke Smith]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] who was also [[United States Secretary of the Interior|secretary of the interior]] under U.S. President [[Grover Cleveland]]. Burton was descended on both sides from a line of [[slaveholder]]s and [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] military men and civic and government leaders. He was well-connected politically, among other relations being a second cousin of Robert Stephen Ellis, Jr. (born 1899), a Louisiana state circuit court judge who was a son-in-law of [[U.S. Representative]] [[Bolivar E. Kemp]] and a brother-in-law of Louisiana Attorney General [[Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Jr.]] Ellis attended [[Gulf Coast Military Academy]] in [[Gulfport, Mississippi|Gulfport]], [[Mississippi]]. In 1929, Ellis received his [[L.L.B.]] degree from the [[Louisiana State University Law Center]] in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]].<ref>U.S. government, "Frank B. Ellis," ''Biographical Directory of Federal Judges''</ref>


==Louisiana politics==
==Education and career==
He engaged in the private practice of law until 1961 while also dabbling in politics. He was a special assistant attorney general in Louisiana<ref name=ellisbio/> and, as a state senator from 1940 to 1944 from St. Tammany Parish,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legis.state.la.us/members/s1880-2012.pdf |title=Members of the Louisiana State Senate, 1880-2012 |publisher=legis.state.la.us |accessdate=September 6, 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224030609/http://www.legis.state.la.us/members/s1880-2012.pdf |archivedate=February 24, 2012 |df= }}</ref> he was the [[President of the Louisiana State Senate#President pro tempore|Senate president pro tempore]] during the term of the anti-[[Earl Long|Long]] Governor [[Sam Houston Jones]] of [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]].<ref name=ellisbio/>
Ellis did not seek reelection to the state Senate in 1944 but ran unsuccessfully for [[Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana|lieutenant governor]], when [[Earl Kemp Long]] was also a candidate in the race for the second position. Ellis ran on the gubernatorial slate headed by [[Sam Caldwell]], the [[List of mayors of Shreveport, Louisiana|mayor]] of [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]].<ref>''Minden Herald'', January 14, 1944, p. 5</ref> The winner of the lieutenant governor's position was [[J. Emile Verret]] of [[Iberia Parish, Louisiana|Iberia Parish]], elected with the winning gubernatorial candidate [[Jimmie Davis]]. Ellis was later politically close to Earl Long as well as Long's nephew, U.S. Senator [[Russell B. Long]], and to Long's powerful aide, municipal Judge [[Edmund Reggie]]<ref name=cdefense>{{cite web|url=http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/frankellisbureaucrat_09a.htm|title=Frank Burton Ellis: The Bureaucrat|publisher=tulanelink.com|accessdate=September 6, 2010}}</ref> of [[Crowley, Louisiana|Crowley]] in [[Acadia Parish, Louisiana|Acadia Parish]], later the father-in-law of U.S. Senator [[Edward M. Kennedy]].
In 1948, 1952, and 1956, Ellis was a delegate to each [[Democratic National Convention]]. In 1948, he, like Governor Long, supported President [[Harry S Truman]], rather than the official Louisiana state Democratic choice, then [[Governor of South Carolina|Governor]] [[J. Strom Thurmond]] of [[South Carolina]], later a U.S. senator. In 1960, Ellis, along with Reggie, were electors for Kennedy and [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Johnson]], the easy winner of Louisiana's then ten [[electoral vote]]s.<ref name=cdefense/>


Born in [[Covington, Louisiana|Covington]], [[Louisiana]], Ellis attended the [[Gulf Coast Military Academy]] and received a [[Bachelor of Laws]] from the [[Paul M. Hebert Law Center]] at [[Louisiana State University]] in 1929. He was in private practice of law in [[New Orleans]], Louisiana from 1930 to 1961. He served as a special assistant attorney general of Louisiana. He was a Member of the [[Louisiana State Senate]] from 1940 to 1944, serving as President pro tem from 1940 to 1944. He was National Director of the [[Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization|Office of Emergency Planning]] from 1961 to 1962. He was a Member of the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] in 1961.<ref name="fjc.gov">{{cite web|url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/ellis-frank-burton|title=Ellis, Frank Burton - Federal Judicial Center|website=www.fjc.gov}}</ref>
==U.S. Senate race, 1954==
In 1954, Ellis ran against the [[Huey Long]] protégé and entrenched [[incumbent]] [[Allen J. Ellender]] of [[Houma, Louisiana|Houma]] in [[Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana|Terrebonne Parish]] for the Senate even though Ellender was close to Russell Long. Ellis was handily defeated in the Democratic primary. In his campaign, Ellis vowed if elected to conduct the office without regard to "race or creed" and labeled himself a champion of farmers and the "working man." Speaking for the [[Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], he vowed to "eliminate by rational methods radical and left-wing elements in and out of government," a view consistent with the outlook of [[Conservative (politics)|conservatives]] in the [[Joseph McCarthy|McCarthy era]].<ref>''Minden Herald,'' [[Minden, Louisiana]], June 18, 1954, p. 2.</ref> Ellis challenged Ellender's seniority, having claimed that longevity "means nothing without leadership and progressive thinking."<ref>''Minden Herald,'' July 16, 1954, p. 3.</ref> Ellender led the race with 268,054 (59.1 percent) to 162,775 (35.9 percent) for Ellis, with the remaining 4 percent for minor candidates. A third candidate, W. Gilbert Fauk, a state representative, also ran in the Senate primary. Ellender then retained his seat without [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] opposition.<ref>Numan V. Bartley and Hugh D. Graham, ''Southern Elections: County and Precinct Data, 1950-1972'', [[Baton Rouge]]: [[Louisiana State University Press]], 1978, p. 122.</ref>


==Civil defense director==
==Federal judicial service==


Ellis was nominated by President [[John F. Kennedy]] on February 2, 1962, to a seat on the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]] vacated by [[J. Skelly Wright]]. He was confirmed by the [[United States Senate]] on April 3, 1962, and received his commission on April 12, 1962. He assumed [[senior status]] due to a certified disability on November 16, 1965. His service was terminated on November 3, 1969, due to his death.<ref name="fjc.gov"/>
In [[U.S. presidential election, 1956|1956]], Ellis worked to elect [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai E. Stevenson, II]], as [[U.S. President]]. He similarly labored for John F. Kennedy in [[U.S. presidential election, 1960|1960]] and was Kennedy's chief [[presidential elector]] that year in Louisiana. Ellis used the slogan "Bring prosperity to the '60s" in his support for Kennedy and running-mate [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. In that same election, Ellis' former rival, Allen Ellender, faced a rare Republican challenge in [[George W. Reese, Jr.]], a New Orleans lawyer and state party official.<ref>Billy Hathorn, ''The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980,'' ([[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]]: [[Northwestern State University]], 1980), pp. 101, 107.</ref>


⚫
==References==
In 1961, President Kennedy named Ellis to direct the new civil defense office. He was also a member of the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]]. He took on his assignment with zeal: "Heretofore, there has been a lack of federal leadership and example — the very qualities we must now exhibit if we are to convince a skeptical [[U.S. Congress|Congress]] and a disinterested public."<ref name=cdefense/> Ellis declared the civil defense office "completely inadequate," and he demanded a larger budget and [[United States Cabinet|cabinet]]-rank status. In April 1961, without informing Kennedy, he proposed $300 million for his department, instead of the $104 million approved in the last [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] budget. He claimed that greater funding was essential to construct more bomb shelters, improve existing shelters, stockpile medicines, and expand the educational programs of the agency. Turned down by the administration, Ellis ruffled feathers further with his decision to proceed with his budget plans. He attempted to insert a clause into [[Federal Housing Administration|FHA]] loan contracts to require bomb shelters. The [[Presbyterian]] Ellis even vowed to go to [[Rome]] to plead with Pope [[Paul VI]] to order such shelters in the basement of every Catholic church.<ref name=cdefense/> Ellis's civil defense office was renamed the Office of Emergency Planning as of July 20, 1961.<ref name=fedleaders/>
{{Reflist}}


==Sources==
==Federal judgeship==
* [https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/ellis-frank-burton FJC Bio]
With Ellis in seeming runaway [[bureaucrat]]ic mode, Kennedy removed him from the agency by appointing him in 1962 to the federal bench in New Orleans to the seat being vacated by [[J. Skelly Wright]], a Truman appointee who had been in the forefront of [[civil rights]] rulings and was given a promotion to the circuit court in [[Washington, D.C.]] In his three-year tenure on the bench, Judge Ellis frequently ruled in favor of [[segregationist]]s. On December 5, 1962, his decision in ''Guillory v. Administrators of Tulane University of Louisiana'' sided squarely with Tulane in regard to compulsory desegregation.<ref name=ellisbio/> Unlike Wright, who had not wavered in pursuing desegregation, Ellis "approached civil rights litigation with a strong concern for local white opinion and a determination to avoid drastic actions that would destabilize established educational educations. Ellis' early years on the bench were marked by his evident desire to slow down and scale back Skelly Wright's ambitious agenda for the integration of New Orleans public schools, and he approached the Tulane case in a similar spirit of judicial retrenchment."<ref>Quoted in Clarence L. Mohr and Joseph E. Gordon, ''Tulane: The Emergence of a Modern University, 1945-1980'', [[Baton Rouge]]: [[Louisiana State University Press]], 2001, p. 227.</ref> At the time, Tulane and the ''[[New Orleans Times-Picayune]],'' the city's leading newspaper, had both resisted integration.<ref name=ellisbio/>
* {{cite web|url=http://www.atomictheater.com/thefederalleaders.htm|title=The Federal Leaders|publisher=atomictheater.com|accessdate=September 7, 2010}}

* {{cite web |url=http://www.conelrad.com/atomicsecrets/secrets.php?secrets=e15|title=The Eisenhower Ten|publisher=conelrad.com|accessdate=September 7, 2010}}
==Marriages and death==
* {{cite web|url=http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/judgefrankellis_08a.htm|title=Judge Frank Burton Ellis: A Brief Biography and Selected Genealogy|publisher=tulanelink.com|accessdate=September 6, 2010}}
Ellis was twice married. By his first union in 1934 to the former Alice Grima (1905–1993), he had three children. Alice was the daughter of George Grima, a commission merchant, whose four older brothers had fought for the Confederacy. Ellis divorced Alice, and in 1965, having retired early from the bench, he married 34-year-old Marjorie L. Wheatley of New Orleans. The marriage lasted until his death four years later in [[Tangipahoa Parish]] at the age of sixty-two.<ref name=ellisbio/> He is interred in the parish seat of [[Amite, Louisiana|Amite]].
* {{cite web|url=http://www.legis.state.la.us/members/s1880-2012.pdf |title=Members of the Louisiana State Senate, 1880-2012 |publisher=legis.state.la.us |accessdate=September 6, 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224030609/http://www.legis.state.la.us/members/s1880-2012.pdf |archivedate=February 24, 2012 }}

* ''Minden Herald'', January 14, 1944, p.&nbsp;5
{{Portalbar|Biography|New Orleans|Louisiana|Law|Politics|Christianity}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.tulanelink.com/tulanelink/frankellisbureaucrat_09a.htm|title=Frank Burton Ellis: The Bureaucrat|publisher=tulanelink.com|accessdate=September 6, 2010}}

* ''Minden Herald,'' [[Minden, Louisiana]], June 18, 1954, p.&nbsp;2.
⚫
==References==
* ''Minden Herald,'' July 16, 1954, p.&nbsp;3.
{{reflist}}
* Numan V. Bartley and Hugh D. Graham, ''Southern Elections: County and Precinct Data, 1950-1972'', [[Baton Rouge]]: [[Louisiana State University Press]], 1978, p.&nbsp;122.
* Quoted in Clarence L. Mohr and Joseph E. Gordon, ''Tulane: The Emergence of a Modern University, 1945-1980'', [[Baton Rouge]]: [[Louisiana State University Press]], 2001, p.&nbsp;227.
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{{s-ttl|title=Director of the [[Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization|Office of Emergency Planning]]|years=1961–1962}}
{{s-ttl|title=Director of the [[Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization|Office of Emergency Planning]]|years=1961–1962}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Edward McDermott]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Edward A. McDermott|Edward McDermott]]}}
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[[Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]]
[[Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana]]
[[Category:Lawyers from New Orleans]]
[[Category:Lawyers from New Orleans]]
[[Category:Louisiana Democrats]]
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[[Category:Politicians from New Orleans]]
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[[Category:United States district court judges appointed by John F. Kennedy]]
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[[Category:Burials in Louisiana]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Louisiana State Legislature]]

Latest revision as of 11:25, 8 December 2024

Frank Burton Ellis
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
In office
November 16, 1965 – November 3, 1969
Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
In office
April 12, 1962 – November 16, 1965
Appointed byJohn F. Kennedy
Preceded byJ. Skelly Wright
Succeeded byFrederick Jacob Reagan Heebe
Director of the Office of Emergency Planning
In office
September 22, 1961 – February 2, 1962
PresidentJohn F. Kennedy
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byEdward McDermott
Director of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
In office
March 9, 1961 – September 22, 1961
PresidentJohn F. Kennedy
Preceded byLewis Berry (Acting)
Succeeded byPosition abolished
President pro tempore of the Louisiana Senate
In office
1940–1944
Preceded byColeman Lindsey
Succeeded byGrove Stafford
Member of the Louisiana Senate
from the St. Tammany Parish district
In office
1940–1944
Preceded byEsco Knight
Succeeded byH. H. Richardson
Personal details
Born
Frank Burton Ellis

(1907-02-10)February 10, 1907
Covington, Louisiana, U.S.
DiedNovember 5, 1969(1969-11-05) (aged 62)
Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)Alice Grima (Divorced)
Marjorie Wheatley (1965–1969)
Children3
EducationGulf Coast Military Academy (BS)
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (LLB)

Frank Burton Ellis (February 10, 1907 – November 3, 1969) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Education and career

[edit]

Born in Covington, Louisiana, Ellis attended the Gulf Coast Military Academy and received a Bachelor of Laws from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1929. He was in private practice of law in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1930 to 1961. He served as a special assistant attorney general of Louisiana. He was a Member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1940 to 1944, serving as President pro tem from 1940 to 1944. He was National Director of the Office of Emergency Planning from 1961 to 1962. He was a Member of the National Security Council in 1961.[1]

Federal judicial service

[edit]

Ellis was nominated by President John F. Kennedy on February 2, 1962, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana vacated by J. Skelly Wright. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 3, 1962, and received his commission on April 12, 1962. He assumed senior status due to a certified disability on November 16, 1965. His service was terminated on November 3, 1969, due to his death.[1]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Ellis, Frank Burton - Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov.

Sources

[edit]
Political offices
Preceded by President pro tempore of the Louisiana Senate
1940–1944 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Director of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization
1961 		Position abolished
New office Director of the Office of Emergency Planning
1961–1962 		Succeeded by
Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
1962–1965 		Succeeded by
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